24/07/2024 - 10 features, seven of which are European productions, will compete for the festival's Platform Prize

Henry Golding and Beatrice Grannò in Daniela Forever by Nacho Vigalondo

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which runs 5-15 September, yesterday revealed the 10 features making up its Platform line-up. Chosen to showcase strong individual visions and emerging international talent, the 10 films are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 CAD given to the section’s best film. The festival’s sidebar was first instituted nine years ago, with Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] among the titles gaining higher prominence. 

The selection includes a few names familiar to festival watchers. Spanish genre director Nacho Vigalondo opens the section, with his film Daniela Forever [+see also:
film review
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] focusing on a bereaved man (Henry Golding) who reunites with his lost love (Beatrice Grannò, from The White Lotus) via lucid dreams induced by experimental drug trials. Another Spaniard, Carlos Marqués-Marcet, fondly remembered for his Goya winner 10,000 Km [+see also:
film review
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interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
film profile], returns with They Will Be Dust [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a look at our “unavoidable death” that is in some way a dance-musical. Bulgaria's multi-award-winning duo Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva bring their latest effort, Triumph [+see also:
film review
interview: Kristina Grozeva and Petar …
film profile], drama set in the 1990s which is the final chapter in the directors’ “newspaper clipping trilogy”, following The Lesson [+see also:
film review
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interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
film profile] and Glory [+see also:
film review
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interview: Petar Valchanov
interview: Petar Valchanov, Kristina G…
film profile]. Mexico's four-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto moves to the director’s chair for the Netflix-distributed Pedro Páramo, a Mexican magic-realist story sounding not far removed from his collaborations with Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Amongst the titles from newly emerging directors, standouts include the Ukrainian documentary Viktor, from the longtime war photographer Oliver Sarbil, focusing on a deaf person navigating the chaos and violence of the Russian invasion. Mr. K [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tallulah H Schwab, Crispin …
film profile], a surreal tale from Amsterdam-based filmmaker Tallulah H Schwab, stars the iconic Crispin Glover in a “Kafkaesque” tale of a travelling magician who checks into a peculiar hotel, only to find he can’t leave. Winter in Sokcho [+see also:
film review
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interview: Koya Kamura
film profile], by French-Japanese filmmaker Koya Kamura, also selected in the New Directors section of the upcoming San Sebastián International Film Festival, stars Roschdy Zem in the role of a man trying to find his own place a small seaside village in South Korea. Lastly, Australian filmmaker Gabrielle Brady brings The Wolves Always Come at Night [+see also:
film review
film profile], a co-production with Germany, her new documentary after her acclaimed Island of the Hungry Ghosts [+see also:
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film profile].

Canadian maestro Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica) heads the three-person jury, joined by Jane Schoenbrun, one of the year’s breakthrough filmmakers for I Saw the TV Glow, and South Korean filmmaker, Hur Jin-Ho, whose drama A Normal Family enjoyed a TIFF premiere last year. 

The full line-up is as follows: 

Daniela Forever [+see also:
film review
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] - Nacho Vigalondo (Spain/Belgium) (opening film)
The Wolves Always Come at Night [+see also:
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film profile] - Gabrielle Brady (Australia/Mongolia/Germany) 
Daughter’s Daughter - Huang Xi (Taiwan) 
Winter in Sokcho [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Koya Kamura
film profile] - Koya Kamura (France/South Korea) 
Paying For It - Sook-Yin Lee (Canada)
They Will Be Dust [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Carlos Marqués-Marcet (Spain/Italy/Switzerland)
Pedro Páramo - Rodrigo Prieto (Mexico)
Viktor - Olivier Sarbil (Ukraine/USA)
Mr. K [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tallulah H Schwab, Crispin …
film profile] - Tallulah H. Schwab (Netherlands/Belgium/Norway)
Triumph [+see also:
film review
interview: Kristina Grozeva and Petar …
film profile] - Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva (Bulgaria/Greece)